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Topic: We Came In Peace .... (Read 5833 times)

Link is picture of reputed 1st ever Caithness paperweight, a hollow cone shape with an engraved spaceman 'We Came in Peace'

Under pic is Colin Terris email after I contacted him - its a good bit of info - I lost the email but later he told me it was the first ever paperweight and had an edition of 1000 - all seemed to go to Harrods

Strange then that when I last put it on eBay at £500.00 (proxy sale) there was not one taker

Adam, that's a really nice paperweight, and so unusual. Some of the Caithness weights can be way ahead of their time when it comes to design, so hold onto it and it'll just increase in value, both monetarily and historically.

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I was lucky enough to get one of these recently and emailed the factory for any info

Big zen bunch of flowers to the most helpful Michelle of sales admin at Caithness Glass who sent me a photocopy of an article with pictures, written by Colin Terris entitled "Is this the first by Colin Terris, the "Father" of modern paperweights"

Roughly condensed as follows,

He ( Colin Terris ) was working on Planet set 1 + Moonflower in 1969 when Harrods suggested he design a piece to commemorate the first landing on the moon by the USA.Trial samples were produced and approved by Harrods and the initial plan was to produce a limited edition of only 250 but interest in the moon mission was increasing daily, so much so that by the date of blast-off the edition size had risen to 1000. Caithness took a risk and pre made the complete edition of 1000 prior to the launch, engraved the them with the astronaut,leaving only the inscription and date to be added when the landing was actually achieved.Fortunatly, as most of us will remember, they landed successfully on July 21st 1969

Working flat out and with extensive overtime, the first 50 nose cones were completed and shipped overnight to Harrods on the 23rd july to enable a display to be set up to sell from and take orders. The remainder were shipped within a fortnight and sold out in the same period. So great was the interest at the time that Caithness created a second edition which was produced and sold only through the factory shop at Wick. This piece, also a nose cone was produced in clear crystal engraved with an astronaut holding a Stars & Stripes flag and the inscription was "The First Landing by Man on the Moon's surface July 21st 1969" There are unfortunatly no records of the numbers produced in this version.

In 1994 a small collection was produced to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the landing which included an updated version of the nose cone engraved with a much more detailed spaceman and inscribed to the front face rather than round the base with "To mark the 25th Anniversary of the first landind by Man on the Moon's surface 1969 - 1994"

It's one of these weights that grow on you The more you study it the better it becomes

I was awaiting Colin to get back to me but your information is excellent and shows that this is indeed the first Caithness paperweight.

I thought this thread was dead - I am amazed and delighted that it has been opened back up.

Colin mentions the second version in his email (see link).

I was always amazed that there was so little response to my post - I think lack of published information and it not being in the Caithness book have caused lack of interest.

Alas Simone - I sold the paperweight on a while back, while keeping lots of detailed photos - I was eBaying then and the price of £500.00 would not budge this rare item - eventually I did get a lot more than that privately - a collector who knew the whole story (as much as we have uncovered) at least.

Only time will tell (when photos are published in books) if this will become the most collectable Caithness - along with the second edition Riki and Colin mention (see link to his email).

Well done Riki on getting one, it seems vulgar to mention values but I feel your weight is into four figures - based on what I sold mine for many months ago.

Thanks

Adam P

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David is my Father's name, 555 is the number of man ('The Pixies'), but please call me ADAM P.

There are some pieces I will sell soon (money? nooo my house is like a antique shop!) and others that are just for keeping, that was one - but who knows what the future holds :wink:

Thanks

Adam

Hi Adam,

Some of the special lampwork weights will make history at some point in time - so keep them. Also some of the finer millefiori weights will be remembrances too...

Also, don't forget the greatness of some of the wonderful glass artists - and when they're gone, their work goes with them. So hold onto what you can of the most memorable ones you know. Each time you hold a weight, you're holding a little piece of energy and inspiration of the artist who made it.

Keep the ones dearest to your heart for your children and grandchildren to enjoy.

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